Cópenere
by Cordelia Rose
Summary: Nobody really knows the true story, the story of Emrys and his cópenere. The girl who waited in the tower, guarded by a corrupted dragon, waiting for her knight in shining armour. Small one shot. Freylin.


_Title: __Cópenere__  
Warnings: Slight spoilers for season 2, and for season 5._

_Set: Anytime after Albion has been created._

_A/N: Oh. My. God. Episode 2…. *dies of teh feels* IT WAS AMAZING! Anyway, I'll shut up now. I've been in this massive Freylin mood recently – I mean, I always am, but for some reason I was just really into it tonight – and this just…came out of nowhere, I suppose. It's slightly based on Rapunzel, only with bits taken out and bits added in and just generally a mash up of stuff. Oh, and __cópenere means 'lover' in Old English._

Stories tell of the princess locked away in a tower, a fierce dragon guarding her, and the brave handsome knight, or prince, riding out in his shining armour to rescue the beautiful maiden.

What most people don't know is that the story itself – that is, the actual happening – was not at all like the fairytale. It was warped and changed as it was passed down through the ages.

It never was a princess, and it was never was a knight or a prince wearing shining armour to rescue her.

In actual fact, it was a cursed druid girl named Freya, a white corrupted dragon that was the light of the sun, and the most powerful magician to ever live, named Emrys.

Freya sighed as she brushed out her dark hair. One day Merlin would come, she knew it. Until then, she had to be content with her tower, and the twisted dragon called Aithusa. Every time she said the name it brought a sting of pain to her heart, for it was her beloved _cópenere _who had named him such.

Every day the witch Morgana talked to the dragon; her words floated up on gusty breezes until Freya felt sick and tired of hearing tales of how Arthur and Emrys were doomed to failure. One day her _cópenere_ would come, and on the day she would finally be free.

She waited forty days and forty nights for Emrys to come, and when after forty days and forty nights he did not she began to worry, for on his last visit – alas, it was a hasty one, consisting of a mere five turns of the hour glass – he had assured her that within forty days and forty nights he would be there.

When he had not shown, Freya begun to worry. But she only needed to have waited for an hour, for when she sat on her window ledge and pondered the night sky, a cry echoed from below.

"Freya!" the plaintive cry came. "Freya, my love. I have come! But alas, see you I cannot. I faced many a foe back in those brambles and the thorns have blinded me, so much so that I cannot look upon your lovely face once more!"

When she heard this shout, Freya was saddened for it meant her _cópenere_ was hindered with no sight. But she was so overjoyed that she would not have to stay in her stone tower for any longer, and that she would be with her Merlin, that she eagerly began at once to climb down the side of the tower in which she had been held captive for so long.

"Merlin, my love!" she cried; "Merlin, my love, I am here! Do not fear, for I am with you, and shall forever be!"

Merlin looked at her with blind eyes and smiled warmly, and even though seeing he could not do he could still touch and so he cupped her face in his hands.

But the witch Morgana did not like this and ordered the dragon who was the light of the sun to attack.

Even though he was blind, Emrys could still hear and when he sensed the clomping of the dragon he once loved he shouted a command in the tongue of dragon, which at once stopped Aithusa in her tracks. At another command, she turned tail and burned Morgana; but that is a story for another day.

Freya took her _cópenere_'s face in her hands, and by the power of her love the blindness was lifted from his eyes and he found that he could see once again; and he was so overjoyed that he gave the order to Aithusa to take them both back to Camelot.

Most children only hear the edited version of course. Whether it was intentionally whittled down to only the narrow, short-sighted version people grow up with or whether it was and still is a case of Chinese whispers, not everyone quite knows the truth about what happened in the reality of that story.

The story of Emrys and his _cópenere_.

_A/N: Well? What did you think? I purposely wrote the story part of it so it sounded quite old fashioned, so please tell me if it worked! I thought it sounded okay…_

…_But I'm probably slightly biased. Then again, maybe not, because I constantly criticise myself._

_But yeah, favourite, review, you know the drill ;) _


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